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Senegal has said it will step up efforts to stop the trafficking of prized timber in its southern Casamance region, following the massacre of 13 men in an incident believed linked to the trade. The army is leading a search for the perpetrators of the January 6 attack in the forest of Borofaye, close to the regional capital of Ziguinchor. Most of the victims were shot, and one was burned to death. Justice Minister Ismaila Madior Fall said the authorities would "evaluate the policy for criminality linked to wood trafficking in the region" in remarks released late Tuesday, after the illicit sale of teak emerged as a possible motive for the killings.

The head of the influential Mouride brotherhood of Muslims in West Africa has died, Senegalese media reported on Wednesday. Around 95 percent of Senegal's population is Muslim and most men join Sufi brotherhoods that combine Islam with distinctive local beliefs. Serigne Sidy Moctar Mbacke, who was 92 or 93 when he passed away on Tuesday, was the grandson of the founder of the brotherhood, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke, and became its seventh caliph in 2010. He was buried overnight in the holy city of Touba and will be succeeded by another grandson of Bamba, Serigne Mountakha Bassirou Mbacke, the official APS news agency reported. President Macky Sall was due in Touba to offer his condolences, Le Soleil newspaper reported, in...

In Nganda, a rural community in remote Senegal close to the Gambian border, restaurant owner Aissatou Tisse is carving out a reputation for tasty homemade, locally grown food. About 100 kilometres (60 miles) away in the village of Niakhar, handicapped Daba Dione feeds her family by raising chickens on a modest smallholding. Thanks to a training course in veterinary health, she is routinely consulted by neighbours about their own poultry. "Today, I've even forgotten the difficulties of the past," Dione told AFP. The two have benefited from schemes that seek both to support women's empowerment and fight poverty in rural Africa, where male dominance, backbreaking labour and misery go hand in hand. - 'Enormous need of women' - "We have...

A rebel movement in a restive southern region of Senegal on Monday blamed the massacre of 13 young men at the weekend on a feud in the illegal teak logging industry. The Casamance Movement of Democratic Forces (MFDC) placed a statement on its website saying it "firmly condemns" the killings, which it said sought to wreck efforts to restore peace to the troubled Casamance region. The movement "will not let itself be distracted or disorientated by the gravediggers of peace", said the group, which has been campaigning for the independence of Casamance since 1982. The west African nation began two days of mourning on Monday. The MFDC called on the authorities to "focus their inquiries"...

The Senegalese government vowed Sunday to be "relentless" in tracking down and bringing to justice those responsible for the execution of 13 people in the southern region of Casamance. Gunmen ordered a group of men and youths, out looking for wood, to lie on the ground deep in the forest before opening fire, a survivor said following the first upsurge in violence in the isolated Senegalese region in years. President Macky Sall, condemning an "armed attack of rare barbarity", summoned his national security council and ordered a ministerial delegation to the scene. "A hard and relentless hunt will be conducted to find the perpetrators of this despicable act," interior minister Aly Ngouille Ndiaye told Senegalese press agency APS during a...

Thirteen youths were killed on Saturday by "armed elements" in the Casamance region of southern Senegal, an area ravaged by armed conflict for more than three decades, a security source said. The victims were out collecting wood in the Bayotte forest, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the regional capital Ziguinchor, "when they were attacked by an armed band of 15 people," army spokesman Abdou Ndiaye told AFP. A source in Ziguinchor said that "thirteen were killed and two were able to escape,", with Ndiaye adding that seven others were injured in the attack. The attackers would have passed the buffer zone separating the positions of the Senegalese army from those of the MFDC (Movement for Democratic Forces in Casamance), the...

Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, Peru, Poland and the Netherlands formally joined the ranks of the non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday "to make a difference," the body's president said. "Peace and security are difficult to achieve," Kazakh envoy Kairat Umarov, who took the rotating presidency in January, told council members at a special ceremony. "You are going to have a real chance to make a difference." One after the other, ambassadors representing the council's six new member countries -- five men and a woman, Polish envoy Joanna Wronecka -- placed their flag among those of the body's nine other members. The UN Security Council has 15 members, including five with permanent seats who have the...

Israel on Wednesday began implementing a plan to force tens of thousands of African migrants out of the country by April, threatening to arrest those who stay. "This plan will get under way today," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting. Under the programme, some 38,000 migrants who entered Israel illegally, mainly Eritreans and Sudanese, will have until the end of March to leave. Each will receive a plane ticket and $3,500 (2,900 euros) to do so. After the deadline, this amount will decrease and those who continue to refuse to go will face arrest. Holot, an open facility in Israel's desert south that can host 1,200 migrants who are allowed to leave to work...

The trial of 31 people accused of terrorism offences in Senegal was postponed Wednesday, setting back a case that has forced the country to confront a security problem plaguing its neighbours. The suspects, among them an imam and three women, are accused of criminal conspiracy related to financing a terror group, money laundering, acts of terrorism and funding terrorism. On the first day of proceedings Malick Lamotte, the presiding judge, delayed the next hearing to February 14 to allow the defence more time to prepare its case. The heavily-guarded Dakar court trial is believed to be the first collective prosecution of suspects accused of terror-related activities in the majority-Muslim country, which is seen as a pillar of democracy and stability...

Qatar's emir was to tour six West African nations starting Wednesday in search of new markets, six months after Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries cut ties with the wealthy emirate. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Lulwa al-Khater told a press conference that Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani's mission would begin in Mali, and include stops in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea and Senegal. The visit is part of Doha's drive to open up new markets and diversify its economy amid an ongoing blockade by its neighbours, Khater said. She said the six countries on the emir's itinerary had "strong economic potential and opportunities despite some security challenges in some of them". The emir is to sign cooperation agreements in health,...

France on Monday accepted a first group of 19 refugees who were identified in Africa under an overhauled asylum policy that will also see it expel thousands of economic migrants. While it has drawn little public outcry in France, the policy faces stiff opposition from the left and from charities that shelter migrants, 22 of which called in an open letter for France's rights ombudsman Jacques Toubon to intervene. Djamel, a refugee from the Central African Republic, arrived at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport with his wife and four children after spending four years at a camp in Chad, telling AFP: "Now we've no other family. Now you are our family." The new refugees -- also hailing from Sudan --...

Flights to and from Dakar's brand-new airport were cancelled on Friday after air traffic controllers went on strike just eight days after it opened. Controllers announced they would strike for 24 hours from 0001 GMT Friday, Blaise Diagne International Airport's operators, LAS, said in a statement. The company "deplores the consequences of this movement, which strongly impacts the image of Senegal, as well as the service provided to passengers and airlines", it said. The air traffic controllers' association, Asecna, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. President Macky Sall had inaugurated the airport on December 7 in the presence of fellow heads of state from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia. He was due to return to the country...

Some spent years working in Italy. Others dreamed of getting to Europe but never even made it as far as Libya. Today, they are among a small number of Senegalese who have turned away from the allure of migration and instead are part of a new generation of farmers at home. Pape Samba Diane, 45, spent five years working in agriculture and in a factory in Italy's Brescia region -- the dream of thousands of fellow Senegalese, many of whom risk the dangerous journey through the Sahara for a place on a rickety boat across the Mediterranean. As he laboured on the vineyards, Diane could not help but fail to notice that the people making most of the money were...

Traffic at Senegal’s newly-inaugurated Blaise Diagne International Airport (AIBD) has been paralyzed since Thursday night, due to a strike by air traffic controllers which is preventing the operations of commercial aircraft, APA can report on Friday. The strike by staff of the Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA) means that only special flights are operating such as the presidential plane, medical flights and military flights. The strikers are demanding “higher-quality staff houses and higher-standard salaries,”...

Today and tomorrow, respectively December 13th and 14th, Dakar, Senegal’s capital, will host an interactive workshop on impact data related to the use and occupation of lands, Agence de Presse Sénégalaise (APS) reported quoting a statement. Organized by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) West Africa, the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control (CILSS) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), this workshop aims at “fostering discussions and actions that will support the sustainability of the program on land use and occupation. Funded by the USAID, it concerns sustainability, conformity with international agreements, support to regional initiatives and capacity strengthening,” the statement indicates. Participants present come from Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal.

Nigeria's former Arsenal striker Nwankwo Kanu led a team of African all-stars in a charity football match on Thursday, to raise money for people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency and highlight their plight. Kanu, Senegal's El-Hadji Diouf, Fabian McCarthy of South Africa and Cyrille Mubiala from the Democratic Republic of Congo were in a side that took on Nigeria Premier League side Kano Pillars at Kano's Sani Abacha stadium. The home side won 2-1 in front of a 16,000-strong crowd. Ticket sales from the "Match for IDPs" (internally displaced persons) will be combined with money from a charity dinner to support those made homeless by the eight-year conflict. The Islamist insurgency began in 2009 and has since killed at...

A Senegalese court on Thursday delayed the trial of popular Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall on charges of embezzling public funds until January 3, as his lawyers denounced a "hasty" start to proceedings. Sall is accused of misappropriating 1.83 billion CFA francs ($3.3 million, 2.8 million euros) -- a charge he denies and which backers say is politically motivated. The court's president Maguette Diop called a special hearing for January 3, after ordering Sall's supporters to calm down after they packed the courtroom to catch a glimpse of a man now facing his 10th month in pre-trial detention. Security was tight at the court in central Dakar, and Sall waved and smiled as "Khalifa president!" was shouted from the gallery as...

In Senegal, Futurs Médias (GFM) group has launched on December 9, Tv channel l’Obs TV and a sport daily Record. According to Ibrahima Dieng, who is in charge of the two media, their creation results from a partnership between GFM, Kwesé TV and Africanews. “It is an exclusive alliance with the pan-African channel Kwesé Free sport and a partnership with Africanews, the Africa-focused news channel of the Euronews group; the two are likely to boost our editorial offer and consolidate our leadership,” said Ibrahima Dieng. Launched in 2003 by the Senegalese star Youssou Ndour (picture), GFM already owns TFM, l’Observateur, one of the country’s major dailies, and many more media well-known by the Senegalese people. Servan Ahougnon

Up to 6,000 Africans who fought for the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Iraq and Syria could return home, the African Union's top security official warned Sunday, calling on countries to prepare for the threat. Smail Chergui, the AU's commissioner for peace and security, said African nations would need to work closely with each other and share intelligence to counter returning militants. "There are reports of 6,000 African fighters among the 30,000 foreign elements who joined this terrorist group in the Middle East," Chergui told a meeting in Algiers, according to the Algeria Press Service news agency. "The return of these elements to Africa poses a serious threat to our national security and stability and requires specific treatment and...